Race Then, Race Now

The Latin American Revolutions occurred during the 1800’s and between the three countries, Gran Columbia, Mexico, and Brazil.  The essential question for the week was: Why is it essential to acknowledge human value regardless of race? How are the events in the Latin American Revolutions evidence of this social imperative? 

Race was very important to the people back then and there were specific rules for how people were categorized.  We learned about this by observing a series of paintings for different racial

combinations.  The main classes were; Peninsulares: Native Spanish that migrated to colonies who were mostly wealthy and high in rank, Creoles: Pure Spanish who were born in the colonies.  They were wealthy, but not as wealthy as the Peninsulares, Mestizos: A mix of Spanish and Indians.  They were farmers, shopkeepers, and artisans, Mulattoes and Free Blacks:  Mixed African and Spanish.  They were slaves who could buy their freedom, Indians and African slaves were at the bottom of the categorization with forced labor and not much freedom.  To study the impact of race the class spilt into groups and we learned about 3 countries separately.  My group studied the time line of Brazil. 

The timeline our group came up with was:

After completing our own timeline, we shared our timeline with the other groups.  We identified commonalities and differences between Gran Columbia, Mexico, and Brazil.  Some of the commonalities were that all countries wanted independence and they were fighting against the same forces; European countries.  Some differences were that they were led by different groups; peninsulares and creoles.  Also, Mexico and Gran Columbia was republic and Brazil was a constitutional monarchy.  The events that happened in these countries were an example of social imperative because social difference led to the unfair treatment of people.  This continued for generations in a family.  This aroused civil unrest and fighting.  In Gran Colombia, Simon Bolivar is “the Liberator”.  The people who were under his rule were treated unfair in that they felt if their humanity is less than others, then they are less free.  In Mexico, the people fought for independence.  Their leader, Miguel Hidalgo, wanted to get rid of racial inequality.  Once Brazil gained its independence, Pedro, the leader, only allowed peninsulares to be a part of the government which caused the other classes to revolt. 

In society, some judgments are still based on race.  Recently, an African American man was confronted by the New York police for allegedly selling illegal cigarettes.  A video shows that one of the police grabbed the man in a chokehold and without unknowingly killed him as the man was saying repeatedly “I can’t breathe.”  The police officer was cleared of all charges in the end.  Mayor Bill de Blasio said that the grand jury’s decision was “one that many in our city did not want,” but cautioned against “violence and disorder” in its wake.  Being African, having a different colored skin has a lot of impacts in today’s society.  People automatically began stereotyping people because of what they look like and make connections to other issues or matters.  This is pretty significant in society, but it shouldn’t be.  People shouldn’t be judged based on what they look like.  They shouldn’t be labeled or categorized as something because that’s defining people based on what they look like and that’s unfair.